Chapter 19

What a bold child, calling his eldest brother her father, in this case it was true, though he'd like to think a normal adult would be too shy to admit that out loud. Was this baby acting?

[How about your past life? Tell me something of your past self.]

Can't remember.

Jiang Xiaotong met his brother's eyes and shook his head, Ming Yongnian remained pensive and motioned for Jiang Xiaotong to continue.

Pretty uncle, I'm a transmigrator!

[Yes you are.]

But that felt weird.

Jiang Xiaotong frowned. [How did it feel weird?]

Don't know.

Jiang Xiaotong almost fell face first on the floor. The baby admitted that she was a transmigrator, then the next she said that her being a transmigrator was weird. It was rather frustrating, it's like he's talking to a puppy that sometimes listens to your command and sits down, then it'll do a belly flop when it's supposed to lay down.

I wish I could google the answer too pretty uncle, don't be sad.

This baby, was she trying to cheer him up? Though he managed to confirm that this baby was indeed a transmigrator. Who else would mention "google" in this world, except for those who came from out of the world itself.

[You're not a baby right?]

"Ahhh!" I told you I'm my father's baby!

Jiang Xiaotong raised a brow. It seemed that Ming Yongnian's child remembered nothing, and something at the same time. Like a robot with text knowledge and no memory of exploring the world. (Did it even work that way for robots?) Eve from the movie Wall-E came to mind, this baby was probably like Eve from Wall-E. Eve had knowledge but no experience that came from memories.

He only ever met other transmigrators or otherworlders on very few occasions, they were like shiny Pokemon in this world. He did not have enough experience to draw the conclusion whether this was a normal occurrence or an exception. There was no way he could ask other transmigrators questions regarding Ming Yongnian's child's situation, that was one way to invite trouble.

[Alright, alright, do you have anything your father should know? Or that me and your uncles and aunts should know?]

The baby seemingly blushed, want to pee…

His head lowered, shoulders shaking, he gave the child a thumbs up, and cut the connection line. He had to hold it in, if he let it out he might hurt the baby's feelings, or her self esteem. A child's self esteem was important. Jiang Xiaotong telepathically spoke to Ming Yongnian, [Eldest brother, your daughter,] He choked and breathed in slowly. [She wants to pee.]

Ming Yongnian disappeared from the room silently.

Jiang Xiaotong rushed towards Lai Meihui and Wu Jinjing, the two women were lounging on a wooden couch with many pillows. He sat down between the two women and grabbed the biggest pillow he saw and buried face, and proceeded to silently laugh.

His shoulders were trembling, the tips of Jiang Xiaotong's ears were red from the lack of air. The other eight saw all of this and similarly thought somewhere along the lines of "Eldest brother's baby must have had a sad past life if even Xiaotong was crying" they all silently pitied the baby.

In reality Jiang Xiaotong was silently laughing his ass off into the pillow, that was why he was shaking so much.

So when Jiang Xiaotong and Ming Yongnian saw that these groups of eight treated the baby like an ancestor, they could only look at each other in confusion.

The baby was sound asleep on top of the lotus flower, after Lai Meihui had given the baby a bottle of milk. Ming Yongnian had kept the lotus the baby was born from, and repurposed it into a crib of sorts for the baby to sleep in. It was floating above the ground, swaying ever slightly when the baby moved.

Ming Yongnian decided that he did not want to learn the reasoning behind his sworn family's actions. "Xiaotong, what did you find."

Jiang Xiaotong shook his head and sighed. "I'm afraid nothing much, though I've confirmed that your daughter is indeed a transmigrator. But for whatever reason she seemed to have no memories of her past life, but the knowledge she previously had was still in her head. I don't know how much knowledge she managed to retain. But she's very much a baby personality wise."

"Was Xiaotong's answer to your satisfaction, Jiayi?" Ming Yongnian asked, Li Jiayi was after all the one who made the push to interrogate Ming Yongnian's child.

Li Jiayi nodded. "Yes, eldest brother, though we should keep on observing your child. In case something comes up."

Feng Delun nodded. "We would not want a repeat of that to happen specifically to us."

The lightheartedness of the room was gone, their mood turned solemn, Wu Jinjing clapped her hands together, meaning to distract them. "We should now focus on growing grasses, shall we not?"

Lan Jianhong tiredly sighed. "Great, we're back to planting grasses."

"The entire week we've gone treasure hunting, all of you were planting grasses?" Jie Qiqiang curled into himself, his shoulder shaking.

He's laughing.

"We have no other choice, this realm's soil quality is poor, a tree could barely live." Li Jiayi argued. "And like eldest brother said, it's useless to grow an entire forest with spiritual energy when the forest needs spiritual energy to live off of, which this realm barely had."

"True, the forest would be dead the very next day if we do not feed it with our spiritual energy. So we're planting grass to what end?" Lai Meihui could not see the connection grass had to… revitalising an environment. Grass was grass, what could it even do?

"I'm also rather confused as to why we need a water spring or create a forest." Jie Qiqiang was scratching his head, then he crossed his arms over his chest.

Instead of letting Li Jiayi explain their current goal alone, Ming Yongnian took charge and asked patiently, "Do any of you know where spiritual energy originates from?"

Li Jiayi evidently knew of the answer, but Ming Yongnian silenced him with a slight shake of his head. Their other sworn brothers and sisters needed to put some effort into the thought.

"Since we're attempting to grow a forest, it has to do something with plants." Feng Delun offered his answer.

"Your answer is very close, Delun." Ming Yongnian praised.

"Spiritual energy comes from plants?" Lai Meihui was in disbelief. The wondrous existence of spiritual energy came from the dull existence of plants…

Ming Yongnian smiled. "Not quite, Jiayi, if you could enlighten us."

Li Jiayi who had been waiting for his moment to shine, explained, "Spiritual energy originates from any living organism, a human, a demon, a devil, even a plant and anything that one may categorize as living. All living beings exude spiritual energy into their surroundings, whether they realise it or not. These residual spiritual energy left in the world then cycled through the realm, causing the realm itself to be able to produce its own spiritual energy. With us living in this Barren realm and constantly using our spiritual powers, we could improve the conditions of this realm. Unfortunately, it would take thousands of years, a time which we are not willing to wait out."

Jiang Xiaotong held up his hand in a motion to stop. "Jiayi, why is it when you speak so wide and long it's always to info-dump us? Couldn't you just dump the information gradually? Ack—!" Lai Meihui hit his head.

"We wanted to know why we needed to turn into a farmer for several years, and Jiayi had so kindly informed us. What are you complaining about?" Lai Meihui hit Jiang Xiaotong some more.

Jiang Xiaotong held his hands out in defense. "Ack—! Stop it! I was just saying alright! There's no fun in it if we get to know things instantly. We'll end up with nothing left to do! Oi! That hurts!"

The two continued their scuffle much to the others' amusement. Wu Jinjing noticed the baby waking up and shushed them, "Shh! Quiet."

In an instant Jiang Xiaotong and Lai Meihui turned still as a stone, when the baby gurgled and fell into a deeper sleep they all let out the breath they've been holding. Ming Yongnian was not pleased by the two and glared at them, Jiang Xiaotong and Lai Meihui both looked like a pair of guilty ducklings.

Seeing some of them were tired from the trip and the moon was hung high in the sky, Feng Delun said, "We'll continue tomorrow, for now rest, we have much to do tomorrow."

***

It seemed that her uncles and aunts were playing a Harvest Moon game life simulation again today. They were aggressively throwing a handful of seeds onto the soil that was not covered by grass buds.

But weren't my father, uncles and aunties cultivators? According to her very smart brain, cultivators were those groups of people that sat in a lotus position for several hundred years, ate pills that were technically drugs, got shocked by lightning when they grew stronger, and repeated. Until they became really, really strong they could create a whole new world.